H1R0
by Reid Phantom
Summary: The project was supposed to be the culmination of everything Mary and Tomeo Hamada had worked for. A robot made entirely of biomechanical components. A bio-mech android. The project seemed to be a success until a problem arose about three years into the five year trial run. A glitch appeared in its AI, one they had never accounted for. It fell in love.


"Alright, H1R0, try this," Mary Hamada said, handing a sheet of paper covered in math problems to the small boy next to her. The boy appeared to be around three years old and had bushy black hair and chocolate brown eyes. He took the paper and brought his pencil to it. "Alright, go." Mary started the timer as the boy began solving the problems. As soon as he finished, she stopped it. She first looked over the paper, then checked the timer. "Perfect."

"Mommy?"

Mary glanced over her shoulder to see her ten year old son standing behind her.

He stared up at his mother with large eyes as he asked, "Can Hiro come play now?"

Glancing between her son and the small boy next to her she smiled and said, "Sure, Tadashi, we're all done."

Tadashi grinned and grabbed the small boy's hand. He dragged the boy out of his seat and through the doorway. "Come on, little brother. Dad bought this cool robot kit for us on our way home from school!"

The mother chuckled and followed the two boys down the hall to their playroom. As she watched them pull the robot pieces out of the box, someone slipped behind her and wrapped their arms around her waist.

"Are we sure we should be allowing this?"

Mary rolled her eyes and turned around to face her husband. "Tomeo, we've been over this, many times. We need to see how H1R0 does both in social situations and around young children and we both agreed that this was a better option than just letting it loose at some park. Besides, this has been going on for over a year and nothing has happened yet. Tadashi is fine."

"Tadashi's not the one I'm worried about," Tomeo Hamada said, earning a frown from his wife. "I believe something may be wrong with H1R0's programming. I've noticed that it has been acting odd lately, almost like it's been getting... distracted, especially whenever Tadashi's around."

Mary frowned and glanced back towards the boys. She had noticed something similar. "Do you think there could be a bug in its AI?"

"I'm not sure. It seems minor, though, and everything else appears operational so for now we can keep it under observation. If it escalates, however..."

* * *

"Why does Tadashi have to go to school?"

Mrs. Hamada glanced back at the small boy sitting in a car seat behind her. He was watching Tadashi walk up the steps to his elementary school through the car window.

"We've been over this H1R0; children go to school to learn new things."

"Elementary level is basics. Middle school is a bridge from that to high school, where students begin to branch out into new subjects and harder material. College is the highest level featuring a wide variety of subjects at different levels of difficulty," H1R0 listed off in a monotone. As Tadashi disappeared inside, he turned back to Mary and asked, "But why does he have to go? Why can't he stay at home and learn with me?"

"Because he needs to be around kids his own age. Social interaction is important for children. Well, for everyone, really."

The boy blinked and looked back at the school. "Can I go?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because you're special."

Mary began to pull away from the curb and into traffic so she almost didn't hear H1R0's next comment.

"I wanna go."

The woman slammed on her brakes and spun around to look at the boy, who was frowning at the school.

* * *

"Emotions? You think H1R0 has somehow developed some sort of emotion program?"

Mary took one last glance at the two boys playing in the playroom before shutting the door and turning to her husband.

"Yes, no, I don't know. I think so. You should have seen it. It was almost like it was actually sad." There was a thunk as something hit the door and both boys' laughter could be heard coming from the playroom. Mary frowned at the noise. "It's been doing that a lot lately. Laughing, smiling, frowning. I had thought it was just mimicking Tadashi, but..."

"But you think it's more. You think this could be a part of the bug that's in its system."

"I'm not sure."

Tomeo nodded. "We've been putting off bringing it into the lab to run a diagnostic in the hopes its AI would repair itself, but if you're worried, we can bring it in tomorrow while Tadashi's at school."

"Hopefully whatever is wrong is just a small bug that's easily fixed and we won't have to trash the whole project," Mary sighed, leaning into her husband as they headed off for their office.

On the other side of the door, a small boy stood frozen, the ball he had been retrieving clutched in his hands. H1R0 sniffled as his creator's words echoed in his ears.

"Hiro?" Tadashi called, walking over. He grabbed the smaller boy's shoulder and spun him around. Noticing the tears slipping from his eyes, Tadashi asked, "Hiro, what's wrong?"

H1R0 shook his head.

"Should I get mom or dad?"

He shook his head harder.

The ten year old shifted from foot to foot nervously before sitting down and pulling H1R0 into his lap. He wrapped his arms around the boy and rocked from side to side, mimicking what his mother would do for him when he cried. As he rubbed H1R0's back, he said, "It's okay, baby brother. I've got you. It's going to be all right."

* * *

H1R0 swung his feet back and forth as he stared down at his lap. He glanced over at the empty seat that had held Tadashi just ten minutes earlier before looking up at his creators.

"Did I do something wrong?" he questioned.

Mary sighed and turned around to face him. "No, H1R0. We are simply bringing you in to check your programming to be sure you are running correctly."

"What if I'm not running correctly?"

"Then we'll fix whatever the problem is."

_What if I don't want to be fixed?_

H1R0 opened his mouth to say something, but he cut off, eyes widening as he caught sight of something outside Mary's window.

"DAD!"

Both adults' eyes became saucers, but neither had a chance to say anything before the car the boy had seen smashed into their own.

* * *

Cass Hamada ran frantically through the halls of the hospital until she reached the waiting room where her nephew was sitting with a pair of police officers.

"Aunt Cass!" Tadashi shouted catching sight of her as she walked up to them.

"Kasumi Hamada?" an officer asked and she nodded.

"Just Cass, please. I got a call. Is it true? Is my brother - and my sister-in-law - are they really -"

"Yes, unfortunately," the officer said, leading her a short ways from Tadashi. She pulled out a small notebook and read from it. "Your brother's car was struck by a drunk driver. Mary Hamada was pronounced dead on arrival and Tomeo Hamada perished en route to the hospital." The officer looked up from her notebook and gave Cass a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry for your loss.

The woman just nodded, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Aunt Cass."

Cass looked down to see Tadashi staring up at her. Judging from his red eyes, she guessed he had already received the news. Trying to put on a smile, she knelt down in front of her nephew. "Wow, Tadashi, is that you? It's been, what? Four years? You've gotten so big!"

The boy's lips didn't so much as twitch from his frown. His aunt sighed, pulling him into a hug.

"There is some good news," the officer spoke up. Cass looked towards her, not letting go of Tadashi. "Your nephew managed to survive the crash and from what I understand, he was in good condition as most of the damage was centered around the front passenger seat."

Cass frowned. "I was told over the phone that Tadashi had been in school at the time."

The officer looked confused, but Tadashi was the one that responded. "No, they mean Hiro."

"Hiro?"

"My baby brother."

Cass's eyes widened.

"You didn't know you had another nephew? I was under the impression you were the boys' closest living relative."

The woman glared at the officer for what she had been implying.

"I'm their only relative. My parents died ten years ago and Mary hasn't - hadn't spoken with her own since she graduated high school. And for your information, I had been very close with my family until my brother contacted me four years ago saying they had to go dark because of some project they were working on. Since then, I've only been getting an email every few months to tell me they were all still alive.

"Though, Tomeo could have at least told me they were having another baby," she growled the last part to herself.

"Hiro turned three two months ago," Tadashi added helpfully, glaring at the officer that had upset his aunt.

Cass ruffled the boy's hair before asking, "When can I see Hiro?"

"Hamada?" someone called before the officer could answer. They looked up to see a nurse in pediatric scrubs standing in a doorway.

The other officer walked up and gave Cass a nod and Tadashi a smile before the two officers left.

Taking Tadashi's hand, Cass walked up to the Nurse. "Hamada?" he asked.

"Yes, is my nephew okay?"

The nurse smiled and nodded as he let them through the door. He led them through the hall as he said, "Yes, miraculously. He has a few scrapes from the glass, but nothing that drew blood. The doctor has ran a few preliminary tests for signs of a concussion, but they've all turned out negative. Given that and his age, it was decided that we would simply keep him here overnight for observation as opposed to running him through the machines. As long as he doesn't show any signs of trauma, he should be able to go home in the morning."

"Thank you," Cass said as the finally reached their destination.

The moment she opened the door to the hospital room, Tadashi called out, "Hiro!" and rushed to his brother's side. Cass, on the other hand, took a moment in the doorway to observe her new nephew. He looked almost exactly like how she remembered Tadashi looking at that age. However, his hair was longer and his eyes were larger. His torso was shorter, matched with longer limbs, and he was very thin, but in that way that it doesn't really look unhealthy. It still made her want to shove him full of donuts and other such treats though.

"Be careful, Tadashi," she called as the ten year old scrambled up onto the hospital bed, but the nurse was laughing behind her so she didn't push it.

Hiro, still looking a bit shaken, had smiled when his brother had ran into the room, but when she spoke up he had gone wide eyed and, the moment he could, buried himself against his brother's side.

Tadashi quickly wrapped his arms around Hiro, one arm rubbing the younger boy's back. "Don't worry, Hiro. This is Aunt Cass. She's going to take care of us." The older brother looked up at her with large, tear-filled brown eyes. "Aren't you?"

"Of course." Tomeo would never forgive her if she let his boys get shipped off to foster care; and neither would she. Noticing Hiro peeking up at her from his brother's chest, Cass moved over to sit on the bed by the boys. "Hello, Hiro, I'm your dad's sister, Kasumi, but you can just call me Aunt Cass. It's so nice to meet you."

"Dad?" Hiro said, voice little more than a whisper. Cass nodded. He looked up at Tadashi. "Mom, Dad, they're gone."

It was a statement, not a question. Cass answered it anyways. "Yeah, honey. I'm so sorry."

Hiro buried his face into Tadashi's chest again and Tadashi's nuzzled his own face into Hiro's fluffy hair.

Cass had never had to deal with children. She had been the younger sibling, so she'd never had to take care of one as a part of the responsibilities of being an older sibling like Tomeo had. She had only tried dating twice, once in high school and again in culinary school, before dismissing the entire idea as pointless, so she'd never even considered having children of her own. Therefore, she had no idea what to do about the two crying boys in front of her. But damn it all if she wasn't going to do _something_.

The aunt wrapped her arms around the two and pulled them into her lap. She tucked Tadashi's head under her chin as she began to hum the tune of one of the Japanese lullabys her mother used to sing to her.

* * *

Kasumi Hamada lived in a spacious two bedroom apartment above her thriving cafe at the heart of San Fransokyo. Emphasis on two bedrooms.

She had been worried at first that the boys would be upset over having to share a room; especially after having seen her brother's house, which had provided the boys with a large bedroom each along with a separate playroom. However, Tadashi had been thrilled at the idea of sharing a room with his brother and, although he hadn't said anything, Hiro had a large smile on his face when he saw the room.

That had also been a subject of worry for Cass (Worried was a word she believed described her accurately during those first months. Worried for the boys, worried for herself, worried in general). Hiro was unusually quiet for a child his age, or at least she thought so. Weren't young children supposed to be screaming balls of energy? Even when he was playing with his brother, he didn't act as excitable as Cass would have imagined. Tadashi wasn't concerned though. "That's just the way Hiro is sometimes," he would say, which is the only reason Cass hadn't looked into psychiatric help for Hiro in the beginning. If he had been this way before, then it didn't have anything to do with his parents' deaths and if Tomeo hadn't been worried, then she wouldn't be either.

As time passed, the younger brother did seem to loosen up though. She had been surprised the first time she had come home with a robot kit for each of them and Hiro actually cheered and hugged her before disappearing up the stairs with his brother.

Although, that had been nothing compared to the surprise she felt a few hours later when she came up to get them for dinner, only to find Hiro already playing with the same robot that Tadashi was just barely finishing up. And _that_ was nothing compared to the time Cass had brought up some after school snacks, only to discover Hiro flawlessly doing Tadashi's math homework for him.

After a discussion with the older boy about having his brother do his homework for him ("But he said he was bored and he wanted to do it!"), Cass took Hiro in to see a specialist. After taking a few tests, the boy was officially declared a genius. At age four, Hiro was admitted into first grade where he proceeded to slip easily through school until, just four short years after his brother (who had managed to skip a grade of his own), Hiro graduated from High School at age thirteen.

* * *

Cass sighed as she brought down yet another untouched plate of food. She hated seeing Hiro like this. He had only ever gone into what she called _Shutdown _four times in the years she had had the boys, three of them being the first three anniversaries of his parents' deaths and the last being when Tadashi had first started college. Those times, Shutdown had only lasted a few days. Tadashi had been dead for over a _month_ and he still hadn't snapped out of it. While Cass had known from the beginning that this time would be longer than the others, she was beginning to worry about how long was too long.

As it was, the woman wasn't sure what to do. Tadashi had always been best at handling Hiro while he was like this. In all honesty, Shutdown scared her. It reminded her far too much of how Hiro had acted when he first came to live with her. He barely ate, only taking a few bites at every meal, if that. He would only speak when spoken to, and even then if what you were saying wasn't properly formatted into a question he couldn't answer with some sort of gesture, it was a fifty/fifty chance that you would actually get a vocal response out of him. He would avoid everyone he could. Unless he was curled up somewhere quietly crying, he seemed to be empty. His voice would go monotone, his eyes wouldn't seem to hold any life, and his lips would just barely shape themselves into a frown instead of a neutral expression. The only difference between how he had been during those first months and how he acted during Shutdown was that while before he had seemed to be trying to hide his emotions, now he seemed to be purposefully shutting them down (hence the name).

Cass didn't even consider taking Hiro to a psychiatrist. She had tried that, once, when Hiro had been five. She and Tadashi had sat outside the therapists office for just over a half of the hour before Hiro's screaming had filled the air.

Tadashi had burst into the office and began shouting at the woman before picking up Hiro and carrying him away. When questioned, the therapist had told Cass that the entire time they had been alone, Hiro hadn't moved, hadn't spoke, had barely blinked, and had held a blank expression. She had only been able to prompt a response out of him when she had asked if he could remember where he and his parents had been going. Hiro had immediately curled up with his eyes shut and began shaking. She had tried to comfort and reassure him, telling him that it would be okay and that maybe if he tried talking about it, they could work on fixing the problem. That's when the screaming had started.

When Cass had gotten back to the truck, Tadashi had been sitting in the back with Hiro crying in his lap. The moment he saw her, Hiro had buried himself against his aunt, begging her not to take him back to the therapist and sobbing something about not wanting to be fixed. She had promised him she would never make him have to go through that again.

She planned on keeping that promise, but at what cost?

She sighed again and resisted grabbing a donut to nibble on as she headed back to work at the cafe. Work time was not the time for stress eating.

_Maybe I should make Hiro's favorite wings for dinner to try and cheer him up_, she mused as she began waiting tables. _And then finish it off with gummy bear sundaes with green tea ice cream._

She turned around and was surprised to find Hiro standing behind her, looking more energized than she had seen him be since the accident.

"Hiro?"

"H-hey, Aunt Cass!"

She smiled, feeling her nerves settle. "Wow, you're up and -"

"Yeah!" he said, glancing around. "Figured it was time."

"Are you registering for school?"

"Uh, yes," he said, nodding and moving past her. "Thought about what you said - really inspired me."

As she watched him, talked to him, she felt her smile become real. Shutdown was over.

"Oh honey, that's so great!" she said, pulling him into a hug.

"Uh-huh."

"Okay, special dinner tonight. I'll whip up some chicken wings -"

"Yeah."

"You know, with the hot sauce that makes our faces all numb!"

"Okay, sounds good."

"Great! Last hug," she said. As she pulled him in for one last hug and felt a weight lift off her shoulders. She may have lost her big boy, but at least her little one was coming back to her.

* * *

"Hiro!"

"Yeah, they made it!"

"Baymax?"

The team stood in silence, all in varying states of shock and grief until the sounds of sirens began to fill the air.

"We should get out of here," Hiro said.

"What do we do with him?" Fred asked, gesturing to where Callahan was leaning over Abigail's pod.

"I don't think he's going anywhere," Hiro responded.

"Just in case," Honey said and tossed a ball at the villains feet. The ball burst and a gooey substance encased his feet. "There, that should hold him until the police arrive."

"Fred, you grab them two, I've got short-stuff," Gogo said. She picked up Hiro.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the youngest member of the team asked, automatically wrapping his arms around the older girl's neck.

"We need to move, fast."

"Yeah," Fred agreed as he wrapped an arm around Honey. "We have to protect our secret identities!"

"Secret identities? Secret from who?" Wasabi asked while being dragged to Fred's side. "Callahan knows who we are and I'm pretty sure Krei does too."

"Let's go!" Fred shouted, ignoring Wasabi. He jumped into the air and landed on a nearby building.

Gogo took a few steps back before shooting forward, racing right up the side of the building. The team rested there to watch the police and ambulances show up. Once Callahan had been escorted into a car, the team turned away.

"Hey Hiro," Fred said, as if remembering something. "How is your arm?"

Hiro blinked before remembering the piece of metal that had flown up and cut his arm. He had been hoping that no one had noticed, but he supposed Fred was probably the only one that could have noticed with everything that had been going on. "Oh it's fine."

"Are you sure? That looked like a nasty cut," Fred said.

"Yeah, it was probably just your imagination making it look worse than it was."

Fred shrugged, accepting the response as it was something that he was known for, but Honey leaned in closer to him.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "It's looks like it's bleeding pretty bad."

Hiro frowned and looked down at his arm to see that his sleeve was soaked with some sort of red liquid. But that didn't make sense. He didn't have blood. Besides, he couldn't feel anything.

Hiro's eyes widened.

He couldn't feel _anything_! He tried to move his fingers, but they didn't so much as twitch.

"Here, let me see it," Wasabi said, kneeling down in front of the younger boy.

Hiro flinched away, clutching his arm to his chest. "NO!" he shouted. "I-I mean, no, it's okay. I'll take care of it once I get home."

Wasabi frowned and pulled Hiro's arm towards him, easily yet gently overpowering the boy. "We should really look at it as soon as possible. You know, clean it and stop the bleeding. Honey, do you think you could use your purse to make some antiseptic."

"Probably, if I knew _how _to make it. I'll have to look into that."

"Right, then cleaning will have to wait. At the very least, we need to stop the bleeding."

"Guys, seriously, I can take care of this later," Hiro pleaded, trying to free his arm as Wasabi pulled off his glove and began rolling up his sleeve. "GUYS!"

Hiro froze. There had been more damage than he had thought.

Hiro had never really thought about what he looked like inside. Mostly because it just hadn't occurred to him and partly because he liked to imagine that he looked like everyone else. That he was human. Looking at his arm though, there was no pretending.

A good portion of the skin on his outer upper arm had been sheared off. A few tubes (his version of veins he figured) were sliced open, allowing the red liquid (his blood) inside them to spill free. A few of the mechanisms had been broken (the reason behind the numbness and paralysis). Nothing looked anything like the robots he'd worked on. It kind of reminded him of the things he'd seen in the different biology or health courses he'd been forced to take. Kind of, but different. Too different.

Hiro yanked his arm out of Wasabi's loosened grip and returned it to its position clutched against his chest. He took in his team's shocked, confused expressions (excluding Fred, whose face was covered by the suit) before screwing his eyes shut and ducking his head.

"Hiro," Honey Lemon said in an almost whisper.

The sound of a helicopter filled the air.

Gogo cleared her throat and said, "Come on. Let's get out of here before we have some unwanted company."

Hiro heard Wasabi get up and move away. Arms wrapped around his back and under his legs as he was once more picked up by Gogo. He didn't even try to resist this time, choosing to use the new position to curl in on himself even more.

They knew. No one was supposed to know. No one had known. Not since his parents - since his creators - since they -

Hiro began shaking. It was so bad, he didn't even realize it when the wind blowing past him stopped. He only noticed the change when Gogo lowered him onto the couch inside his garage lab. He pulled his legs into his chest and glanced up the others. Fred was shedding his suit, looking excited. Honey Lemon was sitting in the rolling chair, unsure of what to do next. Wasabi was nervously straightening up a nearby table. Gogo shifted from side to side before saying, "I'll be right back." She darted out of the garage and down the street.

The four sat in silence as Fred finally made it out of his suit and went to sit on the arm of the couch by Hiro. A short time passed before Fred spoke up.

"Sooooo… you've got a robot arm?"

"Fred," Honey hissed.

"What? It's awesome!"

"Fred, enough," Wasabi warned turning away from the table.

Gogo reappeared as Fred said, "It's true! Hey, since we're superheroes now, do you think you could upgrade it? Like, add a flamethrower or rocket launcher or -"

Gogo smacked him on the back of the head, growling out, "Shut up, Fred."

Fred opened his mouth to make another comment before catching sight of Hiro. The boy had his eyes closed once more and was curled up even tighter. The comic nerd swallowed, but otherwise stayed quiet.

Gogo passed out the group's street clothes, which she had fetched from Fred's house, and the two girls disappeared upstairs to change. After shutting the garage door, Wasabi changed out of his suit. Hiro didn't move.

When the girls returned, Honey took one look at Hiro before dropping onto the couch and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He flinched away from the contact, but she pulled him back.

"Hiro, it's alright. There's no need to get upset. Everyone has their quirks."

"Yeah, just look at Wasabi," Fred joked.

"What? There's nothing wrong with me!"

Honey sent the two a scornful look before focusing back on Hiro. "Really, Hiro, it's okay. You don't have to be ashamed about having a prosthetic."

The boy looked up at her with wide eyes. "Prosthetic?" _They think it's a prosthetic? That's perfect! But what if they ask questions? What do I say? Do I lie? Do I keep lying? What lie should I tell?_ Hiro's thoughts became muddled and mixed until he couldn't think. He couldn't process.

He was barely even aware when a sentence spilled from his lips. "It's not a prosthetic."

**... we'll fix whatever the problem is...** spoke a faded voice from a part of Hiro's memory banks.

The shaking was worse than ever before. Everything was fuzzy and jumbled. Then a pair of hands slammed down on his shoulders and his vision was filled with narrow, brown eyes.

"Hiro, look at me. Breathe," Gogo commanded.

Was he breathing. He didn't think so. Or maybe he was just breathing too fast to tell. Was he hyperventilating?

"Hiro. HIRO! Focus. Breathe with me. In." She took a large breath in. "Out." She exhaled slowly. She continued her exaggerated breathing until Hiro managed to match the pace. His brain was still a bit fuzzy, but he figured that was because of his arm. If that liquid was his equivalent to blood, it probably wasn't a good thing he was losing so much.

"Right," Gogo said before yanking off his helmet and tossing it to the side. She pulled him off the couch and shoved him into the rolling chair.

"Gogo," Honey called.

The dark haired girl pushed Hiro to his workspace saying, "Hiro needs to clear his mind and calm down. Focusing on fixing his arm will help him do that."

Hiro opened his mouth to object, then closed it. Gogo... was right. With that in mind, alongside the fact he really needed to stop the "bleeding" and a mental mantra of _It's just another robot, just another robot, not my arm, just another robot_, he got to work.

He recognized the tubing. It was made from a rather simple to make material that had many uses because of it's durability and malleability. He was easily able to reproduce the tubes with the 3-D printer and quickly yet carefully replace the punctured ones.

Next came the machinery. He also recognized the material they were made from. It was a special organic-esque material that was highly sought after in the biomechanical field and not useful in much else. That made it hard to come by unless you had either connections or money. Hiro had neither. He patched up what could be patched up and for what couldn't... carbon fiber would have to do until he could figure something else out.

Once replacements had been made for the "lost cause" machinery, that only left the hardest part of all. Hiro had absolutely no idea what his skin was made of. After staring at it for ten minutes, he sighed and pulled out the first aid kit Tadashi had always made sure was in the lab. He made a thin, flexible plate of carbon fiber and placed it over the exposed area before wrapping the whole thing in bandages to both keep the plate in place and hide the abnormality.

Sighing, he sat back and observed his work, his hand opening and closing as he tested the mechanisms. His head was still a little fuzzy, but he figured that would have to be a constant until his body had time to replace what had been lost in the blood department. Maybe if he gave a sample to Honey Lemon, she would be able to replicate it in case he need a transfusion or something.

At the reminder of his teammates, Hiro slowly turned around. Three of the four were sitting on the couch; Fred had his head buried in some old comic book of Tadashi's, Honey was messing with something on her phone, and Hiro might have thought Gogo had fallen asleep listening to her music if her lips weren't moving along with the lyrics. Wasabi, on the other hand, appeared to be alphabetizing the books on the bookshelf.

Honey was the first one to notice he had finished.

"Hiro!" she shouted, jumping to her feet and gaining the attention of the others. She ran over to him, but stopped herself from hugging him when he flinched back. "Is your arm okay?"

"It's good. Well, as good as it's going to get until I can get ahold of the proper materials."

"Good," she sighed with relief. She gave into her urge and pulled the small boy into a hug. "Now, are _you_ okay?"

"I - I don't know."

She nodded and pulled back a little so that they could see each others faces. She gave him a gentle smile and said, "You know you don't have to tell us anything, right? We'll ignore it, if that's what you want. Pretend it never happened."

Hiro considered it before shaking his head. No, they already knew too much. Besides, after all they had been through together, the other's deserved to know. They had earned the right to know.

Honey hugged him again before leading him to the couch. Fred hopped up on the arm as Honey sat Hiro between herself and Gogo. Wasabi grabbed the rolling chair and sat down on it backwards.

Hiro stared down at his lap as he thought about where to start. He sighed and finally looked up at his team as he realized he'd have to start from the beginning.

"Did Tadashi ever tell you guys anything about our parents?"

Wasabi glanced at the others before shrugging. "Just that they were scientists and died when you both were young. Usually if we talked about family, he talked about you and Aunt Cass."

"I can't really remember much about them. Only the basics, really.

"They had been scientists, with Mom specializing in bio-chem and anatomy and dad in robotics. They had met when they both joined a team for some biomechanics project. They ended up falling in love, both with each other and biomechanics.

"They worked on a bunch of projects over the years, but the last one they had worked on had been their biggest. Project H1R0, as it had been called, was supposed to be the culmination of everything they had worked for. A robot made entirely of biomechanical components. A bio-mech android.

"I don't know how long exactly they worked on the project, but they did eventually create a working model. The project seemed to be a success until a problem arose about three years into the five year trial run. A... glitch appeared in H1R0's AI, one they had never accounted for. They had been bringing it into the lab when they - when their car -"

Honey Lemon wrapped an arm around his shoulders when tears started rolling down his cheeks. "What was the glitch?"

"It fell in love," he whispered before speaking louder again. "With its creators - it's parents - and their son - it's brother. But it was a robot. It wasn't supposed to have emotions, so they were going to take it in to either fix the problem or de-deac-deactivate it if it c-couldn't be f-fixed."

"H1R0. Hiro," Gogo said quietly.

"Tadashi was the one that came up with it, I believe. He mistook the 1 and 0 for an I and O. My par- cre- _They_ wanted to keep the project a secret until it was ready to be displayed so that they could work on it without having someone looking over their shoulders. They put their own money towards the project and set it up so that it would appear I was their son if anyone tried to look into it. They let Tadashi believe the same since they didn't want him to accidentally reveal the truth.

"He never knew," Hiro sobbed, curling into himself again. "He never knew I'm not - not human."

Honey pulled him into a hug. "Oh Hiro, you poor thing," she said before trailing off into Spanish.

Hiro looked up at her in shock, then looked at the others. He expected them to be angry or upset, but their faces only held sympathetic looks.

"I don't understand," he said, pushing away from the blonde. "You should be angry. I-I'm not human. I'm a fake."

"It doesn't matter," she said, pulling him back. "You're still our friend. You're still the Hiro we care about."

"Yeah," Fred cheered, his usual excitable-ness overtaking him. "If anything, you being a robot makes you even cooler!"

Gogo reached over to shove Fred off the couch. She smiled at Hiro and ruffled his hair.

"It's like Honey said before, Hiro," Wasabi added. "We all have our quirks. What we are doesn't change who we are, it just makes us special."

"And I know Tadashi would feel the same way," Honey said. "He loved you, Hiro. He would never think of you as just some robot. You were his little brother and nothing would ever change that."

"But - but I'm broken."

"No, you're not," Gogo said. "Look, parents screw up sometimes. You shouldn't let it get to you. I don't know what your parents were thinking, but they should have never tried to get rid of your emotions or said you were messed up just because you had them. They did something amazing when they created you and they should have realized that."

Hiro glanced around the team, who all nodded, before pulling away from Honey to hug Gogo. "Thank you."

The Korean woman awkwardly patted him on the head, but smiled. Honey Lemon squealed and wrapped her arms around the two. Fred and Wasabi quickly joined the hug at Honey's insistence.

"Alright, alright, that's enough," Gogo huffed, shoving the others off her.

* * *

"Ow."

"I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. Hello, Hiro."

The young boy laughed and threw himself at the healthcare robot. "Hey, buddy, I'm so glad your back."

Baymax returned the hug and patted Hiro's head as the teen started to tear up. "There, there."

Chuckling, Hiro pulled away, only to hear something outside the door of the private lab the college had offered him (Tadashi's old one, which had hurt at first, but had also made him smile). The boy put a finger to his lips and snuck over to the door. Throwing it open revealed his team. The four didn't even try to pretend to feel guilty for eavesdropping as they sauntered into his lab to greet Baymax.

The health-bot greeted each one in turn before focusing on Hiro. "My scans show that you have a laceration on your upper arm."

"Oh, yeah." Hiro's hand came up to touch his arm where his hoodie's sleeve covered the bandages. Thanks to SFIT's extensive resources, Hiro had managed to get the materials to properly replace all his broken mechanisms, but he still couldn't figure out what his skin was made of. He had even given a sample to Honey and she had checked her findings against the entirety of the college's materials list, but nothing had come from it. "It's alright, Baymax. I've gotten it all taken care of."

"May I see your arm?" Baymax asked anyways.

Hiro humored the health-bot by pulling off his jacket and holding out his arm. Baymax unwound the bandages and set them and the plate to the side. He looked over the affected area before, to Hiro's surprise, turning and walking out of the lab.

"Baymax!" Hiro shouted, running after his friend. Baymax had waddled into the main lab space, which was empty seeing as Honey Lemon, Gogo, and Wasabi had managed to get the entire space to themselves this year.

"That's my space," Honey said as Baymax began rummaging through her cupboards.

Baymax turned around, arms full of chemicals, and faced Honey. "I am in need of these supplies. May I use them?"

"Uh... Yes?"

"Thank you," the health-bot said, giving a small bow. He set the chemicals on the countertop and turned back to the cupboards to pull out some equipment.

Honey pulled out her phone and began record Baymax as he set up the equipment and got to work.

"What is he doing?" Gogo asked before popping her gum.

"I have no clue?" Hiro shrugged. "Honey Lemon?"

"He's not making anything I've ever made."

The five watched as he continued to work. Fifteen minutes later, Baymax was left with a small vial of a clear liquid and a beaker of a purple semi-liquid. He attached a sprayer to the vial before moving over to the first aid kit that every lab was required to have. He pulled out an instant cold pack and returned to the group.

"May I see your arm?" He asked Hiro, setting down the cold pack and grabbing the vial.

"Uh, sure," Hiro said slowly. He held his arm out reluctantly. "Uh, buddy, what are you doing?" he asked as Baymax sprayed the clear liquid on the exposed mechanisms and tubing. His eyes went wide as Baymax set down the vial and grabbed the beaker. "Whoa, what -!" The teen tried to yank his arm away, but the health-bot easily kept a hold of him. Baymax poured the entire contents of the beaker onto the skinless portion of Hiro's arm. He set down the beaker and grabbed the cold pack. A timer appeared on Baymax's stomach as he cracked the cold pack and shook it. He set the cold pack on Hiro's arm and the timer began counting down from a minute.

Giving into the inevitable, Hiro held still and watched the numbers of the timer tick down. It hit zero with a "ding" and Baymax removed the cold pack to reveal...

Hiro brushed his fingers over his arm. It was slightly red and chilled from the cold pack, but...

"M-my arm! It's just like new! How - how did you know to do that?"

"The instructions were included in your chart in my database."

"My chart?"

The timer was replaced by Baymax's healthcare screen, which was paired with a picture of Hiro. The special notes portion expanded and the team was shocked to see all the files that were listed. There were blueprints for Hiro's mechanisms, the recipe for his skin and blood, and more. There was even a note about how the oil in peanuts reacted poorly with his synthetic stomach acid and skin.

"This has to be all of my parents' Project H1R0 notes. How did you get these?"

"Tadashi."

Hiro's breath caught in his throat. He felt a hand grip his shoulder lightly, but wasn't focused enough to tell who's it was. "T-Tadashi? But when? How?"

Hiro's chart was replaced with a video.

_Baymax was looking down. A wire connected his data port to the computer Tadashi was working on._

_"You are adding something to my database. Why?"_

_"I'm just adding my brother's chart to your health chip," Tadashi said, typing away._

_"My programming states that I should create a chart for someone after I scan them for the first time."_

_"Yeah, well, my brother's special. He needs a different kind of care." Tadashi grabbed an old hard drive out of his bag and held it up for Baymax to see. "See this, I found it when I was thirteen while going through some of my parents old stuff. It's got all my parents notes on Hiro from when he was built until they died."_

_"Human children are born, not built."_

_"You're right, but like I said, my bro's special. I hadn't understood everything on the hard drive when I found it, but I understood that."_

_Tadashi plugged the hard drive into the computer and hit a few keys. "There, now you should have all the information you'll need to take care of Hiro."_

_Tadashi sighed and sat back. "I'm worried about him. He's always been one for keeping everything bottled up, and then there's his latest obsession with bot fighting. I'm hoping you'll be able to help with that. And maybe getting the bonehead to actually consider going to college."_

_There was a ding and Tadashi looked at the computer. "Right, upload's complete. We're all finished."_

The video stopped as Tadashi reached up to unplug the wire from Baymax's data port.

Hiro sniffed and reached for his brother. "Tadashi, he had known. All this time, he had known."

Honey Lemon pulled him into a hug and gave him a small squeeze. With a soft smile, she said, "I told you he would love you no matter what."

Hiro nodded. He pulled away from her and wrapped his arms as far around Baymax's stomach as they could go.

"Are you satisfied with your care?" The health-bot asked.

"No, never! Thank you, Baymax."

Baymax blinked before hugging Hiro back. "You are welcome, Hiro."

"Please don't leave me again," Hiro sniffed softly into Baymax's stomach. "Please."

There was no sound for a short time, but that was okay. Hiro hadn't been expecting a response.

"I won't leave you. I promise."

The words were quiet. Quiet enough that there was no way the others could have heard them, but they filled Hiro with warmth. That hadn't been in Baymax's programming.

Baymax ended the hug and stepped back. "You have been a good boy. Have a lollipop," he said, holding out the mentioned treat.

"Thanks buddy," Hiro chuckled, taking the sucker.

The health-bot patted him on the head before returning to the countertop to clean it up.

Wasabi gave Hiro a pat on the back and joined Baymax. "Here, let me give you a hand."

Honey Lemon gave Hiro a kiss on each cheek before following after Wasabi with a "Don't you dare move around my chemicals, Wasabi!"

"But how are you supposed to find ANYTHING!?"

Gogo chuckled at the two's antics and draped an arm over Hiro's shoulders, while Fred full out laughed and ruffled the younger boy's hair.

As he looked up at his team - his friends - his family, Hiro smiled and held the lollipop to his chest. For the first time since that day in the playroom long ago, Hiro didn't feel broken.

* * *

So this idea just up and assaulted me one day while I was working on another Big Hero 6 story I have planned (which was actually put on hold due to this evil little monster). Not entirely sure where it came from, but here it is.

The basic idea I molded Hiro after was actually Sari Sumdac from Transformers Animated. I wanted him to be a robot, while still being pretty organic, in a sense. His brain is a computer and it works like a computer, but he still has his own thoughts and feelings. His body works like a machine, yet he still feels pain and needs sleep and food, if only less than a normal human would need. Somethings he can heal on his own while others have to be physically removed and fixed or replaced.

Hiro's Shutdown is supposed to be similar to when people attempt to shut out or bottle up their emotions. He's basically reverting to his original programming. That is why he only eats the bare minimum of food needed to survive, converses only when necessary, and so on. Of course, he is so much more than just his original programming, so it is possible to "wake" him. Examples being when the therapist's accidental poor choice of wording sent Hiro into a panic attack or how Baymax running off lead Hiro to worry and take chase.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Leave them in a review and I'll be happy to respond if I can.


End file.
